The present invention relates to the field of inflatable support systems, which may include air mattresses and inflation control thereof.
Most everyone has faced the need for an extra bed or mattress at some time in their life. Air mattresses, originally introduced many years ago, have allowed homeowners and others to provide their guests with a surface more comfortable than sleeping on the floor, while not imposing the same storage requirements on the homeowner as traditional mattresses.
While air mattresses are a significant improvement over sleeping on the ground or curled up on a sofa, the mattresses still have many problems. For example, original air mattress designs were often clunky and uncomfortable, the manufacturing techniques and materials used resulted in poor air retention, the inflation and deflation systems employed with such mattresses often required significant time and effort, and the mattresses tended to provide only marginal support.
Some in the prior art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,633, issued to Robert B. Chaffee on Dec. 18, 1990 (xe2x80x9cthe Chaffee patentxe2x80x9d), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,495, issued to Yaw-Yuan Hsu, et al. on Oct. 5, 1999 (xe2x80x9cthe Hsu patentxe2x80x9d), have attempted to address some of these shortcomings. By way of example, the Chaffee patent teaches the use of a large, manually operated pressure release valve to speed deflation. The Chaffee patent also teaches the inclusion of a small cylinder around which a deflated bed can be rolled, further simplifying deflation. This same arrangement also allows the bed to automatically unroll while being inflated, which also simplifies the inflation process. The Chaffee patent also illustrates the inclusion of an electric motor, which speeds the inflation process.
The Hsu patent attempts to address some of the comfort problems typically associated with air mattresses. The Hsu patent uses tube beams inside a mattress to provide additional lateral load support. These tube beams are separate structures which are added to the inside of the mattress and are attached to the upper and lower mattress surfaces through a sinusoidal sealing pattern in an attempt to provide further rigidity to the mattress.
Despite advances in the art, no one marketed an inflatable mattress that approximates the height of a traditional bed. Instead, a person sleeping on one of these mattresses still has the perception of sleeping on the floor. In addition, getting into and out of such a bed can be difficult, especially for an elderly or disabled person. An inflatable mattress that more closely approximates the dimensions of a traditional bed would therefore be advantageous.
Another problem commonly encountered by inflatable mattress users is the propensity for such mattresses to roll over. Rollovers are not only a problem with inflatable mattresses, but with all lightweight support surfaces, such as inflatable furniture. Some in the prior art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,902, issued to Marvin S. Lieberman on Dec. 19, 2000 (the Lieberman patent); the xe2x80x9cGame Day Minute Chairxe2x80x9d by Aero Products International, Inc. of Wauconda, Ill.; and the xe2x80x9cRetro Air Chairxe2x80x9d by Intex Recreation Corporation of Long Beach, Calif., have used multiple, inflatable cylindrical tubes to improve the stability of inflatable chairs.
While the stabilization methods employed in the prior art can improve overall chair stability, each has shortcomings, especially when applied to other support systems. For example, the Lieberman patent teaches the installation of a U shaped inflatable tube underneath the front of a chair and a small, inflatable tube which extends along and is immovably attached to the rear base of the chair. Each of these tubes is also inflated separately from and to a higher pressure than the body of the chair. The increased pressure of these tubes strengthens the base of the chair, thus reducing the likelihood of rollover. While this approach has some merit, the introduction of separately inflatable tubes means added work for the consumer, who must move an inflation device from one valve to another until the chair is properly filled.
The Game Day Minute Chair and Retro Air Chair apply alternative stabilization techniques. In both cases, two small, inflatable stabilizer bars, no more than fifteen inches long and approximately six inches in diameter when inflated, are attached to the base of the chair to increase the surface area covered by the chair. These stabilizer bars are attached to the chair through narrow, short inflator tubes(three and one half inches long by one and one half inches wide in the case of the Game Day Minute Chair). The inflator tubes allow the stabilizer bars to be in fluid communication with the chair bodies and to be filled with air as the chair is filled. The increased surface area created by the combination of the inflator tubes and the stabilizer bars provides more stability by distributing the weight over a larger area.
As with the Lieberman patent, the shape and position of the stabilizer bars employed on these chairs also strengthens the chair body where the stabilizer bars contact the chair. However, such strengthening is only provided to areas adjacent to the tubes. While this may be practical for inflatable support systems with smaller weight bearing surfaces, such as chairs, a few, relatively short stabilizer bars will not provide stability for larger inflatable support systems, such as inflatable mattresses.
Another problem faced by inflatable support systems of the prior art is structural stability of the sides of the support system. The shape of the side tends to distort as weight is applied at or near the edge of the support system. Such distortion can cause a person to slip or fall from the support surface, increasing potential liability on the part of the support system manufacturer. Obviously, this becomes increasingly significant as the height of the support system is increased. A means of improving the structural stability of the side of the mattress is therefore preferable as height is increased.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an increased height inflatable support system that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to improve the structural stability of the support system sides.
Another object of the invention is to reduce the likelihood of support system rolling over.
A further object of the invention is to increase overall support system height to more closely approximate the height of a standard bed.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention is an increased height inflatable mattress. This increased height can improve the perceived comfort of the mattress, as it allows a user to feel more like they are sleeping on a traditional bed. The increased height is achieved by vertically stacking two or more inflatable chambers. In a preferred embodiment, these stacked chambers are in fluid communication with each other, such that all chambers can be inflated from a single valve. In an alternative embodiment, the stacked chambers may be separately inflatable.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention addresses the shortcomings of the prior art by including one or more stabilizer bars and one or more support chambers. Stabilizer bars reduce the likelihood of support system rollovers by effectively increasing the surface area across which weight added to a support system is distributed. In a preferred embodiment, stabilizer bars are flexibly attached to a support system along one or more sides, and at or near the bottom of the support system. In one embodiment, stabilizer bars can be in fluid communication with the support system, thereby allowing the stabilizer bars to be inflated as the support system is inflated. In an alternative embodiment, stabilizer bars may be comprised of separately inflatable chambers. In still another embodiment, stabilizer bars may be constructed such that a rigid or semi-rigid material, such as, but not limited to, plastic or cardboard, can be engaged into a holder, such as a sleeve, attached to the support system.
The support chamber portion of the preferred embodiment is an inflatable chamber which is attached to the side walls of the support system. In one embodiment, support chambers can be attached at any chamber junctions within a support system. The shape and position of the support chambers allows the support chambers to reinforce chamber junction edges, thereby increasing the strength of the overall support system.
In a preferred embodiment, all inflatable chambers of the support system are in either direct or indirect fluid communication with other chambers of the support system. This can allow the support system to be inflated from a single motor, with the simple flip of a switch. In an alternative embodiment, some or all inflatable chambers may be separately inflatable, thereby allowing each chamber to be filled to a unique pressure.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.